Chimay GP Circuit

[simon drabble]

Can anyone give me some info on Chimay as I am racing there in July. Ideally some photo's or track notes to familiarize myself would be great. It seems that the circuit guide has left it out.

[SL]

Motor Sport had it as a feature within the last 3 months. With I think a map, perhaps one of the mag collectors will still have a copy.

SL

[Speed Demon]

You can find a map of both the traditional Chimay and the shorter modern course on e-Tracks, my website. Click on my personal details for the link.

[Peter Mallett]

Just had a quick glance at your site. Very good. How about a reciprocal link?

[Speed Demon]

Sure, no problem. I'll add it at the next update. I've got next week off work, so I should get round to adding a few more tracks too!

[Muzza]

Friends,

(Speed Demon, please see note at the end)

I spent a whole day in Chimay in March 1999, driving up and down the circuit and taking lots of pictures (sorry for not being able to post them now, I'm far away from home these weeks). Folks, that's a place to visit, believe me. I don't understand why there is no more people fancying that place. If the famous Chimay beer was not a good enough reason!

Chimay is a nice place to visit on a summer weekend - the old town is pretty and there are several small breweries that allow visitation. There is a good bistro at the square behind the main church for your eating needs (yes, I had pommes frites, I know someone would ask that!)

You can drive the whole circuit with your car - both the classic and the current one. The old control tower, falling into pieces, is a kind reminder of the past. Just like in Reims, you can see old advertisments painted on the walls and vintage signs here and there. There a small chapel on the top of a hill which is also a place for great pictures. To imagine the race cars drive by these landmarks gave me chills.

There is a bookshop/newspaper stand on the street that is the main access to the old downtown that sells two books about the history of the Chimay circuit and of the Grand Prix des Frontieres. The shop owner, a gentleman on his 60s, is a race fan has many stories to tell. He and his wife are a very friendly couple. When I told him that I'm Brazilian he open up his eyes, smiled and recalled a conversation with Emerson Fittipaldi back in 1969!

Classic circuit
The circuit is on the fringe of the town, completely made by open roads. The start/finish line is a downhill, followed by a tight right-hander elbow. Then the track blasts West for some two miles down the main road to/from Chimay to the next village, where the Salles turn is located.

This is a double right-hander, going in-between houses (for those who love rustic rural architecture, there is beautiful barn nearby...). Watch out for the second leg of Salles (not the original guard-rails still there), it is tighter than what you think.

The track then goes uphill, passing just beside an old chapel towards the Robechies turn, and then it goes through several farms and isolated houses ('a la old Spa). Further down the track passes over a railway track - this section looks quite dangerous, hard to imagine late 1960s Formula 3s racing there (in 1972 a driver in a Chevy Camaro flew off track, dove down the railway embankment and was killed there. There is a marker by the road).

A right-hander takes you to the Parc de Beauchamps, a sort of grove with houses, a gas station, a tyre shop and other small businesses. The road is narrower here. It plunges downhill to the start/finish line. Before that, note, at your left, the chicane built for the current circuit.

Current circuit
Not surprisingly, the current circuit is a shadow of the classic one. It is located at the end of the track which is the closest to Chimay. They built a new pit complex in 1996, just after the tight right-hander that used to be the first turn of the classic circuit. Bikers and other race-freaks like myself gather there.

This new pit complex is located on that main road to/from Chimay I mentioned above. After a couple of hundreds of meters the track turns 90o into a new, purpose-built section. It goes uphill. This became now a sort of avenue, used by normal day-by-day traffic (you can drive through/along the chicanes).

At the top of the hill there is another 90o right hander (ops... look at the gravel trap!), and then it joins the old track, although for a little while only, from Beauchamps to the old boxes, but marred by chicanes.

Nice to see someone going there - please send us a report of your trip.

(Speed Demon: your website says that the circuit was revived for cars in 1996. Actually the Belgium Procar series raced there before that. In the 1992 edition of the race the Belgium driver Guy Neve was tragically killed in a gruesome accident, driving a Porsche 911)

Keep in touch,

Muzza

[Marc C]

You probably know that two books were written by enthousiast André Biaumet about the story of the "GP des Frontières" at Chimay. Volume 1 is from 26 to 60, Volume 2 is from 1960 to 1973. It's in French and included lot's of results, entry lists,starting grid when known, reports of the races, lot's of pictures... A must.

Both books are still available at the author
André Biaumet,
rue Montoyer, 67
6510 Morlanwelz
Belgium

[Muzza]

Merci, Marc,

The books you mentioned are the same listed in my message - thanks for clarifying the name of the author!

Indeed, I recommend them, Simon.

Cheers,

Muzza

[Peter Mallett]

I can drive past Charleroi when I go to Spa. I never even thought about Chimay. Muzza, thanks for your description, next time I go over there I'll take a detour.

[Speed Demon]

Thanks, Muzza. I really had to search around for my map of the new Chimay and the date of races restarting was something of a guesstimate. Was the 1992 race the first on the new circuit then?

[Muzza]

Hello, Speed Demon.

Glad to see I could be of help. By the way, congratulations for your website, I appreciate your effort to put quality above quantity.

As you, I am a "track freak". And as such I travel around to visit circuits, no mind how obscure they are. This - and beer - is what took me to Chimay. People really have strange hobbies, don't they?

I understand why your question is important for your website - I asked it to myself before. I will try to answer as well as I can.

When I visit Chimay (March 1999) I did not know that Guy Neve had been killed there - I thought the accident, about what I had no additional information whatsoever at the time, had happened in Spa. A few months ago, in late 2001, I tumbled over a website with videos of car crashes and I finally saw the pictures of Neve's terrible accident.

(note: you are not asked to see these pictures. Watch the video at your discretion. I just don't want to receive politically correct messages reminding me about how disgusting the pictures are. I know they are disgusting - and maybe better than most of you. I lost two friends in races, and I know very well how sad this can be. I saw their loved ones bearing with their loss. It made me wonder for a long while if I should continue to like motorsports. Having said that, the website is http://tbk.fameflame.dk)

My analysis of the video - which, again, I only saw more than two years after my stop in Chimay - makes me believe that the accident happened somewhere on the road between the first corner and the Salles double right-hander, on the approach to a temporary chicane laid with tires in the middle of the road. This would mean that in 1992 the old circuit (which had not been used by racing cars, but only by bikes, after 1973) was revived.

Unfortunately I do not have more solid data to back up my conclusions, which only reflect what I perceive from the video. Maybe our friend Marc in Belgium can help you better.

Finally, I can imagine how difficult it was to you to get the new Chimay lay-out on your site - I have not seen it anywhere else! The section between Beauchamps and Port de Mons looked me a little different in "real life" than the diagram (compare it with the old circuit lay-out), but I have no better documentation to provide.

Once back home I will post some picture about Chimay.

Best regards, and keep the good work on,

Muzza

[Speed Demon]

My map of the current circuit is based on the one at RacingBelgium.com ( www.racingbelgium.com ) It's the only map of its kind that I've found.

[Rob29]

Wow! That's some site! Apart from the only map of the recent Chimay circuit,it seems it has a photo of every Belgian who has ever raced.But no historic meeting on calandar this year.

[simon drabble]

thanks for all your help, and I agree it is extraordinary that they do not mention even Spa 6 hour! i will let you know how I get on!!